The use of green banana flour is attracting food technologists as an important ingredient in the development of functional foods being the rich source of resistant starch. Banana is a highly perishable food commodity, and to preserve the physicochemical, nutritional, optical, and sensory attributes, which are of great concern. Thus, the aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of pre-treatment and dehydration temperature on the quality attributes of dehydrated green banana slices. Results of convective drying at 50–70°C with an interval of 5°C indicated that drying characteristics and quality parameters were pre-treatment and temperature dependent. The effective moisture diffusivity (Deff) increased from 0.41×10-10 to 1.43×10-10 m2/s and 0.63×10-10–1.57×10-10 m2/s for untreated and treated samples, respectively, on increasing the dehydration temperature. The activation energy (Ea) was significantly reduced on pre-treatment and took lesser dehydration time at respective corresponding temperatures. Henderson and Pabis's model was found best to describe the dehydration process. The treated dried banana slices at 60°C showed a lower tendency toward yellowness, color saturation, and browning index, with higher total phenolic content (102.54 mg of GAE/g), antioxidant activity (10.92%), and sensory attributes as compared to the products obtained in other combinations.
Key words: Antioxidant activity, Banana, Colour, Mathematical modelling, Pretreatment
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